The politics of today pits liberals versus conservatives or Democrats versus Republicans. This dynamic makes it extremely difficult for bipartisan dealings and legislation.

Our government has evolved into competition between two parties. To coexist with completely different platforms our current government seeks to compromise on these competing views. It is obvious to the average citizen that our government is failing miserably. In fact, our Founders would not even recognize our current form of government.

Our Founding Fathers created a republican form of government (republic) based on the principle of natural law where man possesses inherent rights granted from God. The sole purpose of our government (our republic) was to protect those inherent, God-given rights. Our Founders would never have compromised on principle, as our current politicians seem to do quite often. Instead of compromise, our Founders sought balance.

Our Founder’s viewed government as a balancing act between tyranny and anarchy. Please see Figure 1, below.

Many of our Founders left England to escape tyranny. They understood that any government, left unchecked, would lead to tyranny. Conversely, they believed in the Biblical worldview of original sin and the fallen man. They realized that man was inherently bad (sinful) and, left unchecked with no government, society would quickly fall into anarchy.

Founders' Views on the Political Spectrum

Their dilemma was quite simple. If organized government leads to tyranny and lack of government leads to anarchy, what was the best “balance” that could be achieved? Their answer was to focus on the smallest form of government in society, the individual and/or the family unit. They reasoned, correctly, that if the individual or family unit were to govern themselves perfectly, then the need for formal government was minimized. Families and individuals that governed themselves correctly would only need a federal government to protect their God-given rights from other individuals and states. A government with protecting rights as its main objective is much smaller, more limited, and much less likely to become tyrannical or in today’s terms, oppressive.

We need to return to our Founder’s vision of government. If we did, we would no longer be required to compromise away the principles that made our nation great. This view of government requires the smallest government possible at the lowest level possible.

Our Founders realized how difficult it would be to keep. Benjamin Franklin cautioned that we have “a republic, if you can keep it.” John Adams warned of the difficulty in maintaining our government when he stated, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Let’s return to our Founder’s original view.

TCG believes that our current government is enormously bloated; spends too much on constitutionally unauthorized legislation and taxes us into poverty to support its spending habits. Our government must return to our Founders’ original intent. We must only support candidates who respect the Constitution and who will not compromise away the principles that made our nation great.

The next principle to be discussed is the Genius of Natural Law.

For greater information on this and other founding principles, please see The Five Thousand Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen.